Quote Processing Demo User Guide
Overview
This sample demonstrates how Web Services and human workflow can be used together within a single business process orchestration. The demo interfaces with JBoss Drools and leverages ActiveVOS Central for working with human tasks. Custom reports are also highlighted.
Scenario
Title:
Quote Estimation Process
Actors
Bob: Customer
Roger: Chief Estimator
Stan: Interior Specialist (mechanic)
Chris: Exterior Specialist (mechanic)
Fred: Power Train Specialist (mechanic)
Mike: Manager
Description
Vintage Old Stock is a fictitious company specializing in the
restoration of classic cars. As the company grew, it quickly
realized that automating some of its internal processes would not only
result in increased efficiency but also provide a way to analyze
business patterns, identify and react to bottlenecks, and improve
customer satisfaction.
Process Steps
The Quote Estimation Process is the first process to be
automated by Vintage Old Stock. The process contains the
following high-level activities:
- Bob submits a request for an estimate of the cost to renovate his classic car
- The request is validated using a rules engine to ensure that the year / make / model can be serviced by Vintage Old Stock
- An acknowledgment email is sent to Bob
- Roger is notified that a new request has been received
- Roger can provide the estimate himself, or delegate the estimation work to one or more of the specialists on staff (Stan, Chris and / or Fred)
- Roger reviews the suggestions from the specialist(s) and prepares the final estimate
- The final estimate is sent to Bob via email.
- The estimate remains valid for 15 days. If Bob doesn't approve the work within that time frame, Roger will be notified so he can contact Bob and possibly try to save the deal.
Benefits of Automation
Using ActiveVOS to automate this process gives greater control
and visibility:
- Employees at Vintage Old Stock are automatically notified of pending tasks via RSS
- Task deadlines and escalations can be automated
- Customers can obtain the status of a request online
- Email is automatically generated and sent to the customer, allowing Roger to focus on more important things
- Managers can view work queues and reassign tasks as needed
- Complex Event Processing is used to alert managers if estimates are taking too much time on average
- Managers and IT can create custom reports to analyze active and completed processes
Running the Demo
The demo application takes you through the estimation process from the viewpoint of the customer, the estimator(s), and the IT / Management. With those roles in mind, and assuming the setup instructions have been carried out, the following links are used for the demo:
| Actor(s) / Action | URL | ID & Password (same value for both) |
| Bob: Enters a request from the Vintage Old Stock homepage | http://localhost:8080/AVQuoteClient/index.html | No credentials required |
| Roger / Stan / Chris / Fred: Claim and complete estimates using ActiveVOS Central | http://localhost:8080/activevos-central/login.jsp | chief interior exterior power |
| Mike: Views details of running or completed processes using the ActiveVOS Console | http://localhost:8080/activevos | No credentials required on default server installations |
| Mike: Views reports from ActiveVOS Central | http://localhost:8080/activevos-central/login.jsp | manager |
Bob: Submits a Request for Quote
1) From within a browser, navigate to the Vintage Old Stock homepage and click on 'Get a quote.'
2) Submit information about yourself and your car. Required fields along with sample values for some of the parameters are:
* First Name
* Last Name
* Your email address ( must be a valid address)
* Make ( Chevy )
* Model (Vega)
* Year ( 1972)
* Description ( Dashboard)
Note: We’ve implemented validation of input data in two places.
- Name and email validation are handled within the form, resulting in a warning that appears in the browser and the request not sent to the server.
- Car information is validated as part of the process orchestration. A rules engine is invoked to ensure data is complete. For instance, based on the year of the car a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) may be required before the final contract is signed.
3) A response is returned to the browser containing a Reference Number, date and status of the request that was just entered.
- A status of 'Pending' indicates the following has happened:
- A process instance was created (the reference number generated is the process instance ID)
- A web service call to a Java-based rules engine was made to validate the request and assign a quote time-to-live
- An email was sent to the email address provided
- A task was created for the chief estimator to carry out the estimate
- An ActiveVOS process is in a 'running' state, waiting for the estimation work to be carried out
- A status of 'QuoteRequestFault' indicates the following:
- A process instance was created (process ID = reference number displayed)
- The rules engine determined that the car information was incomplete or in error
- The process is now in a 'faulted' state
Roger (and Specialists): Carry out the Estimation Task
The ActiveVOS task management system creates a new estimation task for the chief estimator. Roger (the 'chief mechanic') is notified of new requests from the ActiveVOS Central task list, or subscribes to it using RSS so he can be notified by other means.1) Log into the ActiveVOS Central task list with the credentials of chief / chief.
2) By default, you should be placed in the 'open / unclaimed' task list view. If not, select it from the tree view on the left navigation pane.
3) Select the task you generated in the task list by identifying the Reference Number in the subject line.
4) Click the claim button
to
claim and start the task. 
- Information about the request is displayed in the ‘Inquiry’ tab.
- Results from the call to the rules engine can be seen in the ‘Pre-Analysis’ tab
- The ‘Estimate’ tab is where Roger will provide the estimate details.
5) From the ‘Estimate’ tab Roger can:
- Complete the task himself
- Select the 'Completed' radio-button
- Provide a Completion date using the date-picker widget
- Provide a Total cost (use a numerical value e.g. 5600)
- Complete the task by clicking on the
button
- Delegate the estimation to any of the specialists
- Select the 'Further Review' radio-button
- Check any / all of the specialists to delegate work to
- Complete the task by clicking on the button
If you delegated work to a specialist, you will need to:
- Log Off as the chief
- Log On as the specialist(s) (e.g. interior, exterior, power)
- Provide cost information and Complete the task
- Log Off as the specialist(s)
- Log On as the chief when all specialists have completed their tasks
- Complete the task as described in the first bullet of step 5
Mike: ActiveVOS Console
The ActiveVOS Console provides a wealth of information for both business users and IT personnel. For security reasons, access to various pages within the console can be restricted from use.Process instance information and data logs are persisted to a database. By using the console, it is possible to view details about processes in any state (running, completed, suspended, faulted, etc.). It is also possible for administrators to suspend or terminate running processes. If a process is suspended, process variables can be modified and the process can be resumed – allowing owners or administrators the ability to 'fix' a process that may be in trouble.
A typical use case for looking at the details of a process instance is to debug a process that has faulted. Root-cause analysis is a case for examining a process that completed normally - for instance an auditor may need to determine exactly what happened to cause the outcome of a specific process instance.
1) Log into the ActiveVOS Console at http://localhost:8080/activevos/home.action
If your Console
has been secured, you will be prompted to log-in as a user with admin
privileges (as seen here):
3) Click on either the Process ID or Name to display instance details
- The process graph is annotated with intuitive markers to display activities that completed, faulted or were skipped
- From the Outline view (shown above) you can:
- Select process variables, activities and objects – details are displayed directly under the process graph
- Suspend or terminate running processes, and resume a
process if it’s been suspended
- From the Log view
- You’re presented with a sequential log of activity and data change events. You’ll notice that by running your mouse over items in the log synchronizes to the corresponding activity in the graph.
- Double clicking on a log entry will basically 'freeze'
all variables at that exact point in time. When the
'execution point' is frozen, if you go back to the outline view and
select a variable, you will see the value of the variable at the time
of the execution point – even if the variable was within a loop.
Mike: Viewing Reports From ActiveVOS Central
Mike, a member of the management team can take a look at the reports in ActiveVOS central.1) Log into ActiveVOS Central as manager / manager
2) Select the Reports category from the left navigation pane in ActiveVOS Central. Select Sale & Production Report. Click Average Time to Quote to view this report:
To open an enlarged view of the report, choose the 'Open in Tab' button:
Click the 'Reference Number' link to open the read-only view of process:
Active Endpoints (www.activevos.com) is the leading developer of visual orchestration systems. ActiveVOS empowers line of business project teams to create applications using services and industry standards, making their businesses more agile and effective. Active Endpoints’ ActiveVOS promotes mass adoption of SOA-enabled applications by focusing on accelerating project delivery time with a standards-based, easy to use system. Active Endpoints is headquartered in Waltham, MA with development facilities in Shelton, CT.
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